For Armory Off-Site, Night Gallery is pleased to present "Social Block," a sculptural installation by the Los Angeles-based artist Josh Callaghan. The installation will open with the fair on September 9th at Flatiron Plaza and continue through November 1st.
"Social Block" takes its inspiration from the humble cinder block, among the most ubiquitous elements of the modern built environment. At approximately 2.3 times normal scale, "Social Block" forms a new relationship to the human body at the intersection of sculpture, furniture, and architecture.
In designing "Social Block," Callaghan drew from William H. Whyte’s The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, a seminal work of urban research into the interactions of crowds with public parks and plazas. Callaghan was especially influenced by Whyte’s concept of triangulation, described as the process through which an external stimulus creates a social bond between strangers in a public space. "Social Block" has utility; dropped anywhere, the sculpture is meant to create an instant social habitat.